Yay, I accepted a job in Seattle and will be moving in July.
Jakub
2003
Oh, also, I will be flying to Europe on the latest airborne deathmobile, the Airbus A330. I am, for perhaps only the third time in my life, quite nervous about this flight.
croman
2004
Gratz BTG!
Seeing it’s ruff to just Find a job nowadays, it’s cool you’ve found one in one of the coolest places to be employed at that! :)
Yeah, I was pretty blown away with Seattle. I was leaning towards California and had a couple amazing offers from some top notch places, but after looking at the housing situation (keeping in mind I’d already done a tour in Silicon Valley and San Diego, so it wasn’t a TOTAL shock) coupled with the state income tax, and then touring Seattle for the first time in depth, Seattle just beat the bejeezus out of Orange County and Northern California.
Seattle’s weather might suck, but the walkability of Cap Hill, SLU, and Downtown easily, easily destroy the walkability of any other city I could work in short of NYC.
Cost of living is still a big jump from Dallas though =( But it’s going to be nice living near a lot of my game dev friends.
Exactly.
People should also bear in mind that in “the good old days” when stay at home mums (lets not kid ourselves by pretending it’s equally as likely to be the dad) were the norm, they had a lot of kids and a lot of work to do at home, it’s not like they actually spent a lot of time with the kids - they minded themselves or their smaller siblings.
When that is said I personally feel I spend too little time with my kids, because my workday is like Fuzzyslug describes - but my wife’s isn’t. 8 hours is the longest for our kids and most days are shorter. This is a choice we made limiting what my wife gets to do and where (distance from our house/daycare). But that’s not based on science, just what we felt most comfortable with.
As an example we considered moving to Sweden were we could get a much larger house, a big car and a proper garden for the kids to play in, but that would give both of us a long commute, so we decided to keep the townhouse, clunker and yard the size of a postage stamp.
Also sometimes when work permit and we decide to pick up the kids early, they’re not actually happy because they’re in the middle of a great game or project - most of the time they’re happy, but sometimes it’s “ooh no, not now! Can’t you go away and come again later?”
Seattle’s weather isn’t half as bad as people make it out to be. It rarely rains all day, you usually get it either in the morning or the afternoon with the rest of the day being clear. And the summer is absolutely gorgeous.
Unless you are someone with serious Seasonal Affective Disorder and can’t stand overcast days, the weather shouldn’t be a problem. I’m a native Texan and I love it up here.
Karen
2009
Ben and I started the couch to 5k training in the beginning of March. It’s been great. We ran our first 5k in earlier May, I did the corporate challenge in torrential rain, and we do 2.75 miles of running every other day now. The loop is over 3 miles, but I like a good walking warm up. I think that I have also dropped 15 lbs (I don’t trust my scale)
It’s been a great thing. I am still so slow (12 minute miles) but I enjoy the runs. Starting with slow with walking / running intervals helped.
So here’s my unsolicited advice… Good luck with the training - it will be rewarding. You will have bad days when you ask yourself, why oh why am I doing this. There’s nothing wrong with taking walk breaks when needed.
You will get sore. You will have joints that suddenly feel very painful. Ice works well. Make sure you stretch after running, and realize that you are suddenly using muscle groups that haven’t been used so much in the past. I find that running doesn’t get give me more energy for the day job (I’m not sure what would give me more energy to stare at a computer). However, I had plenty of energy to chase my 5 year old nephew around.
I was given 4 boxes of photocopied paperwork for 18 months of activity on a company. The owner was selling it to our client and after $150K was given, our client found the current owner was convicted of fraud from a previous company and was on his way to jail after incurring substantial legal fees. The partner our 90 person accounting firm was named after tasked me with digging into every piece of paperwork, addressing every asset and liability of the company, determing the net worth of the company (as best we could) and determine how much fraud within this company had most likely occured. All in 48 hours I had to process that, determine all necessary accounting adjustment, and create supporting documentation to be presented in court. I had the aid of 5 employees that had been here one year or less and had limited auditing experience, which this job required, as they are all tax accountants (No, tax accountants and auditors are not the same :) ). I had never done this type of project and had never managed five folks on one project.
I have no idea how we did it, but we got it done with me leading the way. 5 years ago I had a shitty dead end job and now my boss and several of the 12 partners see me as one of the few accountants here with future, partner potential. Work is incredibly challenging (to the point of very high stress) and at times, very difficult in the need for acute and accurate analytical skills, but I am happier doing it than I could have ever imagined.
That said, I am so tired, I may be “getting something in my eye”" as I type this.
This morning my wife left for a ten-flipping-week neuroscience retreat on the other side of the flipping country. It’s only been like 5 hours, but being a bachelor sucks.
That’s absolutely awesome :)
In my experience, my timer is three days. When I’m left alone because my wife has taken the kids on a trip to see family I really enjoy the first three days. I drink too much beer, play computer games until 2:45 am, walk around the house in just boxers, and do all the other things I can’t do with my family around.
Then once three days passes the novelty wears off and I’m just lonely.
I strongly recommend Robert Ullrey’s Couch to 5K Podcasts. They have nice techno music to keep you moving and voiceover to tell you when each run cycle starts and stops.
Mine is two weeks. There must be some formula that calculates the gradual increase the longer you have been married. 13 years Monday for me.
Thanks, it kinda is and unbelievable at the same time. Just takes an ass load of hardwork, but it is possible for those that have the opportunity and drive.
Karen and Kyle – thanks for the advice and encouragement. I chose the Couch to 5K plan after seeing it discussed here on Qt3 in one of the fitness threads.
My wife never does that :-(
But I think three days would be my limit as well. I’ve been alone with the kids for two weeks now (ending tomorrow) and I can say that the novelty of that is completely worn off.
Congrats!
Are you going to be working somewhere in Seattle proper or, uh, Kirkland?
Mine is two weeks. There must be some formula that calculates the gradual increase the longer you have been married. 13 years Monday for me.
We’ve only been married 4 1/2-ish years and I can do maybe 1.5 days before I get lonely. So maybe you’re right.
How many hours a day would you say you get? Is it reasonably cloudy still otherwise?
I may just have to keep going north to Vancouver to get more rain a day, but I really somewhat want the Seattle people describe. 10 years in Arizona has made it so I get depressed in heat and oppressive sun. The improvement to my mood on cloudy or rainy days is shocking, and if it rains all day, I’m totally happy with it. But if I can get an hour or two at least, that’d be great.
